


I feel the future looming and the tide of time subsuming and you

by Silveriss



Series: TFC Fantasy AU [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bittersweet, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, I made Germany into a valley because this is my AU, M/M, Mostly I just wanted to describe some mountains, Separation, Short, why do I make myself sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 06:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17575940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silveriss/pseuds/Silveriss
Summary: It's a crisp day caught between winter and spring. The plateau shivers, drawing out long gasps in the breeze. Over the sleeping rocks the plains drop to give way to the valley, a haven far away from Palmetto or Nicky's parents.The future is looming, but time slows down on top of the windswept plateau.





	I feel the future looming and the tide of time subsuming and you

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as part of a writing challenge inspired by a list of Sensory prompts, from which I used "Napping in Sunshine" for that one. I borrowed the title from Joseph Fink's Sunday Morning Stasis.  
> For context, Nicky met Erik while he was out looking for an artefact for Tilda, on his parents' order.

It's a crisp day caught between winter and spring. The plateau shivers, drawing out long gasps in the breeze. Over the sleeping rocks the plains drop to give way to the valley, a vast corridor dwarfing the bordering mountains, a hollow spine slithering along the river with a thousand names that dives and springs from waterfalls over hilltops into lakes and underground currents, trailing a silver-glistening ribbon in the early afternoon light.

Nicky knows the view by heart. He could paint it blindfolded, if he had even an inch of artistic fiber in his body. He's spent so much time trying to etch all of it into his brain that it's the only thing he sees now when he closes his eyes. Well, that and one other thing.

Erik opens his eyes before Nicky is done counting his eyelashes, lips lifting in a grin. "See something you like?"

"Yes," Nicky smiles, and kisses him because he wants to. The fact that he's able to never ceases to marvel.

Erik's smile lights up underneath his lips.

"You're in a good mood today."

Nicky leans the side of his head back on the ground, closer to Erik than before. "Trying to enjoy it while it lasts."

The wind brushes over them.

"So you're really doing it."

Nicky reaches out to smooth Erik's eyebrow crease with his thumb and Erik gently pulls his hand away. He brings the fingers to his lips, kisses Nicky's knuckles with soft lips and half-closed eyes, and his lashes are threads of gold making lace out of his cheekbones with shadows.

"They're my family."

The lace disappears. A sigh slips out of Erik's lips, grazing Nicky's fingers and running goosebumps all the way up to his shoulder. They lock eyes.

"I know. But it's not your role to take care of them."

"Someone has to. I can't just leave them there, Erik. They need me."  
He speaks with a smile, like it's the easiest thing he's ever said. But they've been over this so many times it barely hurts anymore.

Erik eases his frown without help this time. His head falls back on the grass with a small sigh that the wind picks up, blowing it over the plateau with a bitter sadness, and he closes his eyes again. And Nicky looks at him.

His short blond hair is summer fields, is love, is the square of light that hits the highest summit of the valley when the day starts to wane, is warm and bright and home.

Nicky had spent so much time trying to run away from home that he'd never thought about making a new one. Yet here he was.

He wasn't sure he would survive leaving.

And that was the whole thing wasn't it - Nicky had always known the valley was too good for him. He had spent weeks living with the foreboding that just when he had started wanting to live again, the world was going to snatch the reason right before his eyes. How ironic, really, that in the end he'd be the one ruining his own chance at happiness.

But this isn't the time to think about going back to Tilda. It isn't the time to think about the twins, the forest, or the artefact and its purpose.

Now on the sheltered plateau lost in the wild, it doesn't matter. Erik holding onto his hand matters, and the sky, so wide, wide, wide and blue, and the mountains that are close and the forest that is far, so far away, and that for just one day, he can be happy still.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on a much longer chaptered fic set later in this AU, so keep an eye out for it if you enjoyed this! You can probably expect more OS in this series as well.  
> Please comment/leave kudos!


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